


Ribbons and Bows

by preussisch_blau



Series: Prompt Me: The Writening [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Briefly Referenced Torture, Gen, Harrison Wells Abuses Hair Clips, Humor, I Am a Respectable Author Who Writes Respectable Fic, Otherwise This Is a Silly Fic, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 14:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6198334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preussisch_blau/pseuds/preussisch_blau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr Prompt: Jesse is having a rough day, but since she’s been alright recently, Harrison and Cisco have gotten so involved in researching something, they aren’t noticing what’s happening around them.</p><p>Barry, being his adorably clueless self, notices, and does the only random thing he can think of to cheer her up.<br/>He stealthily, speedily starts buying and putting the cutest hair clips in Harry and Cisco’s hair.</p><p>Actual Summary: Jesse is having a bad day, but Harrison and Cisco are too busy doing science! to notice. Actually, they've been doing the science thing all morning. She finally goes to drag them away for lunch, but runs into Barry instead.</p><p>Barry notices she's upset, and does the first thing that comes to mind to cheer her up: he buys a ridiculous quantity of hair clips and convinces her to help him in his mission to get them into Harry and Cisco's hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ribbons and Bows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sheneya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheneya/gifts).



> Oh man, so this was a cute prompt. Too cute. I couldn't resist writing it as soon as I finished the book prompt.
> 
> Also, the full prompt couldn't fit in the summary box, so here it is:
> 
> "Jesse is having a rough day, but since she’s been alright recently, Harrison and Cisco have gotten so involved in researching something, they aren’t noticing what’s happening around them. Barry, being his adorably clueless self, notices, and does the only random thing he can think of to cheer her up. He stealthily, speedily starts buying and putting the cutest hair clips in Harry and Cisco’s hair. Jesse thought she’d freak out at Barry using his speed around her, but it’s so different from Zoom’s, and there’s no way Zoom would do something this ridiculous just to cheer her up, so she starts grinning, then giggling. Harry and Cisco actually caught on fairly fast once Barry started, but they don’t say anything as their hair quickly fills up with increasingly ludicrous hair clips, because it’s making Jesse happy. At least until Barry brings in that one, single hair clip, that has Harrison just going “NO.” Barry gives it to Jesse instead, because she seems to love it." 
> 
> I ended up diverging from the prompt near the end, though. So it's not like this will spoil the fic for you.
> 
> beta read by dancesontrains. any remaining mistakes are mine, because of course I edited after they read it like a goddamn _genius._

It seemed like nothing was going right that day, which was melodramatic and over-emotional of her to say, but at the moment, Jesse really didn't care. Her sleep had been interrupted by nightmares of torture. Which left her tired and hungry and desperate for breakfast in the morning. The only thing that had been left for breakfast was oatmeal, because her dad was too caught up in some project involving Barry's super suit. Which probably would have been okay, but it brought back too many painful memories of being held captive by Zoom, who had been less than imaginative in feeding his prisoners.

So she hadn't eaten breakfast, which meant she couldn't really go for a jog to clear her mind, because exercising on a completely empty stomach was just a terrible idea. She settled in, instead, with her sketchbook and some pencils to draw. Except that hadn't worked out either. She'd spent her morning sketching and erasing and sketching and erasing, until she finally gave up and tore the page from her sketchbook because it had too many shadows from her failed attempts at rendering something, _anything_ with an acceptable degree of accuracy.

Eventually she switched to reading, except her mind kept wandering away from the words on the page, back to her year in captivity. Jesse ended up fleeing the room she shared with her dad, the ordinarily cozy dimness of it suddenly feeling all too dark and claustrophobic. A quick glance at her watch told her it was nearing noon, so maybe she could pry Dad and Cisco away from their work long enough for someone to get them some lunch.

She almost runs into Barry just outside the Cortex, or more accurately Barry almost runs into her, yellow lightning sparking at his edges as he slows down. She squeaks in surprise, nearly tripping in her attempt to stop before she hits him, and ends up falling against him _anyways_.

"Uh, hi Barry," Jesse says, letting him help her straighten up. "What're you doing here? I thought you had work today?"

Barry nods, patting her on the shoulder before stepping away. "Yeah, but I figured I'd stop by to see if you needed lunch or anything. I don't think Harry and Cisco are coming up for air any time soon; forget _food._ "

"Well, lunch would be nice. I need to go grocery shopping again, I think. Dunno when Dad does it, but he hasn't lately, so breakfast was…" Jesse trails off, before shaking her head. Nope, not thinking about that.

When she looks up again, Barry has an oddly thoughtful look on his face. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she replies, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Barry frowns, then, and she isn't sure why, but she turns away to slip into the Cortex. Her dad is there, so is Cisco, and neither of them look up when she enters. They're both debating over the finer points of some theoretical polymer, papers laid out before them, along with at least one tablet that she can see. Jesse wouldn't be surprised if there's another one hidden behind one of the chemical engineering books they have out, or lost under some of the papers. She watches for a while, considering how to interrupt, when Barry is at her side in a small gust of wind.

She looks up, and he hands over a Walmart bag and a bottle of water, though there's another bag from Walmart still slung over his arm. She checks her watch - it's been at least five minutes, which means he might have actually stood in line and otherwise shopped like a normal human being - before peeking into the bag and sighing at relief upon seeing a salad hiding in there. Jesse loves her father, really she does, but living here has some disadvantages, including a lack of an actual kitchen. She's had far too many microwave meals for her liking.

After she opens the salad and starts eating, her curiosity finally gets the better of her. Jesse nods to the other bag Barry brought, asks, "So, what's in there?"

Barry grins widely. "Oh, stuff for training."

"Training?" she asks, eyebrow raising. She pops a cucumber slice into her mouth and chews thoughtfully as he explains in a low whisper.

The premise is simple: he has to place hair clips - and he lets her look into the bag to see that there is an absolutely ridiculous quantity of clips and ribbons in varying degrees of cuteness - in both Cisco and her dad's hair, without them noticing.

That makes both her eyebrows go up, as she tries to hide her amusement at the idea and keep her voice down. "How is this _training?_ "

"Well, I'm gonna have to be really fast but really controlled if I'm gonna get these things on their head without them realising what I'm up to," Barry replies with a shrug. "And it seems more fun to me than just… running."

Jesse shakes her head slowly, chuckling under her breath. "Right. Well, in that case, I'm gonna go find somewhere else to be."

"Oh no you don't," Barry whispers, "It's more of a challenge if someone else tells me where to put these. Otherwise I'm probably just gonna go after the easy targets."

She can't quite figure out why it has to be her, or how Barry even came up with this idea. She's too busy being a little terrified, after the day she has had thus far, of the prospect of Barry zooming around at super speed in her presence. But Barry is giving her an earnest, hopeful look - one that makes him look almost like a puppy - and she finds her resolve to leave crumbling. (This explains why Dad puts up with Barry, Jesse thinks, because there's no way even he could resist that face, not even when he's in work mode.)

"Okay, fine," she acquiesces. "Give me that."

Barry hands over the bag, grinning ear-to-ear and bouncing on the balls of his feet. She sifts through the assorted hair accessories inside, before selecting a simple, tiny claw clip that looks like a butterfly. Jesse hands it over to Barry with a conspiratorial look. "Try and get that to stay in the short part of Dad's hair."

"As you wish."

* * *

Cisco goes to brush his hair back from his face, only to find that it's already held back by… a metal hair clip? One that feels like it has a heart shaped decoration glued to it. He blinks in confusion and turns to look at Harry - and has to bite the inside of his cheek very hard to not burst out into laughter.

The man looks like he's been attacked by a glittery, bejeweled garden. He has all manner of clips in his hair, from sparkly butterflies to rhinestone bedecked dragonflies. And never mind the ones with flowers on them. And are those _bows_?

Harry glances up at him, eyebrow raised, clearly holding back a smile. "About time you noticed, Ramon. They've been doing this for the past ten minutes," he mutters lowly.

"No way… wait, how bad is my hair?" he almost reaches up to check, but his hand stills when Harry glares at him. Which is a little disconcerting because the guy is still obviously in a good mood.

"Oh, you look like you've been attacked by the Disney store," Harry says with a shrug. "Well, if Disney also owned Hello Kitty and whatever those cartoon ponies are."

Cisco wonders why he got all the character clips, before noticing that the bulk of the ones in Harry's hair are claw clips. Ah. That kind of makes sense, the flat kind like he felt earlier probably wouldn't stay in shorter hair as well. He does have to hand it to Barry, he even got some to stay in the shaved part on the back of Harry's head.

"Now, I believe we were discussing the applications of a carbon fibre/kevlar blend for Barry's suit?" Harry asks.

He blinks in confusion, before feeling a bit of a breeze around them, and noticing another small bow has appeared in Harry's hair.

Cisco sighs, and leans in to look at the notes Harry is pointing to. He hisses quietly, "Okay, why are you putting up with this? This is exactly the kind of thing I would picture you yelling at Barry over?"

Harry shushes him with an equally quiet, "Listen."

He almost argues, but decides against pissing the guy off, and shuts his mouth to do as he was told. That's when he notices the faint noise of stifled, girlish giggles. Ones that tell him it's not just Barry in here with them, but Jesse as well.

"Oh."

"Mm," Harry nods. "I don't think I've heard her laugh since we've been here. So shut up and let them think we're still unaware."

Well, he can't argue with that.

* * *

Jesse grins widely when she spots the huge bow in deep red and bright yellow. It's positively bedecked with rhinestones, and has thinner, fluttery ribbons hanging off it as well. She has no idea where Barry found it, but she knows exactly which man it's going on. There's a nice, empty spot right on top of her dad's head, and she thinks it'll suit the garden theme she decided on for him very well.

She hands it over to Barry, who is giving her an amused look.

"Man I hope you never become a supervillain," he says.

That almost makes her burst out in loud laughter, but then the jig will be up. So she huffs, shoulders shaking, finally managing to ask why after a few seconds.

"Cause that smile you had when you saw that bow was _evil,_ and I'm a little afraid to find out what you have planned for it."

She claps her hand over her mouth, still holding in the laughs that bubble in her throat. Once she's gotten herself under control, Jesse gestures to her dad. "See that empty spot right on top of his head?"

Barry looks, expression growing a little concerned as he considers it. "Wow, you are making this hard on me."

It takes her a moment to figure out how it will be difficult, but, right. Barry and Dad are about the same height, and that's not a claw clip, but a barette style clip. Which means the easiest way to fasten it to that spot would be to press it against her dad's head… but he'd notice that, no matter how fast Barry moved.

Jesse shrugs. "Good luck. You said I could pick the targets."

Barry glances down despairingly, before nodding once. He's back in the blink of an eye, and the bow is securely fastened exactly where she wanted it. Jesse starts giggling again - until her dad straightens up from his work, hand going to the top of his head, patting the bow lightly like he's feeling it out.

She doesn't have a chance to warn Barry, whose back is to the other two, before Dad whips around, launching the bow at Barry. It bounces off his head, and she can't help but imagine a little 'boink' noise, like in a cartoon or something. Barry looks startled, jumping slightly, before he spins to face her dad.

"Why do you keep aiming for my head?!" he cries out.

That's when Jesse loses the battle against laughter, dissolving into loud peals of it, curling slightly and holding her stomach because it kind of hurts after holding all that in. She's not sure which is funnier: Dad's aim, Barry's indignance, or the fact that apparently something like this has happened before.

"Just returning the favour, Allen," Dad remarks drily.

"Hair clips don't work like that!"


End file.
